What does the short/long lived branch mean?

Graphics / Linux Linux
1

Hi,

I am confused about what the short/long lived branches mean.

I would expect that a long lived branch was conservative and changes from the short branch is merged over once tested on the short lived branch. But the long lived branch has a newer version:

Linux x86_64/AMD64/EM64T
Latest Long Lived Branch version: 390.25
Latest Short Lived Branch version: 387.34

Could someone please explain what these branches mean, and put a link on the page that explains it for others like me.
There already is a “What is a legacy driver?” link. So A “What branch should I choose?” link would be nice.

Thanks,
Jesper

2

I don’t think they are more conservative with long lived branches. I think they just support long lived branches for six months or so and short lived branches for around three months only. So if 390 is a long lived branch, 393 is a short lived branch, 396 is a long lived branch, and so on.
In other words, it is one support release for three months, two for the next three months, then one again for another three months.